British Political Turmoil and Prime Minister

Good morning. The Trump administration reveals the fine print of their Iran deal. The Wall Street Journal explains why some within the GOP are already pushing back. Their big concern is they think that he is going to be defeated at the negotiation table or at very least is giving away too much too early The new Fed share makes his first big decision on rates And the small group of Brits that could pick the next prrime Minister. The quirks of the British political system mean that the drama we're about to see unfold is really unlike anything you'll see anywhere else It's Thursday, juneenth. I'm Get Resnic in Fhmit toabestu. This is Apple News todayay President Trump wrapped up the G seven summit looking to sell new details of his agreement with Iran Yesterday, officials briefed journalists on the fourteen key points in their memorandum of undernderstanding, which was signed by both parties last night, and according to mediators, is now in effect Trump described it as a very strong deal, but it's already coming under scrutiny from some of his own allies Many of the points were already known, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and a mutual agreement to respect each other's sovereignty. And another key point that Iran reaffirmed its commitment to not build nuclear weapons The ultimate fate of their uranium would be left for further negotiations. But Trump said the threat of military force would hold Iran to their pledge. I don't think that they're going to veer from the agreement. What else am I going to do? Am to say I'm going to take you to court Let me take you to court. me let me sue you No, we're going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement. I don't want them to. I want them to honor the agreement. But the emerging costs of this deal are already proving high for some There were big questions about the economic benefits for Iran Officials briefed journalists that three hundred billion dollars would go into a reconstruction fund for Iran That money may be conditioned on further negotiations, and Vice President Vance said that Gulf countries would contribute the money The deal also includes sanction relief and unfreezing funds for the regime. Republican Senator Bill Casty told reporters the deal was a quote, deep mistake. The details that I've seen so far look like look awful This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder Iran ends up stronger. Our allies in the region are weaker And Iran has learned that if they're willing to grab that strait of Hormu and choke it off. They can get the Western world to dance to their tunes There were also questions about whether it had left Iran as weakened militarily, as the administration suggested The White House repeatedly told the public that one of its key objectives was to obliterate the country's ballistic missile arsenal Israeli politicians have heavily criticized the failure to achieve that. And yesterday, Trump addressed his critics directly I have guys, I like some of these guys But I don't think this don't think they're smart Sure, you shouldn't let them have any missile. I said, Well, what am I going to do? A're going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them Yes, sir Kent doesn't work that way, you know? It doesn't work that way. missiles aren't the problem. missiles are They heurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet U. S. officials would only read out the text to journalists, providing no hard copies Lawmakers haven't been briefed, and Trump has said the text will be made public quote sometime after Friday The Wall Street Journal reports that this has frustrated some of his fiercest allies in Congress. You have some members of Congress saying, wait a minute, if there's a treaty, we have to vote on it. Philip Wegman covers the White House for the Wall Street Journal And that's coming from the more hawkish voices who have been at least in the early stages, somewhat critical of how the administration is putting this thing to bed Wegman says many Republicans who initially supported Trump in the war are concerned the agreement could lift sanctions on Iran too soon, and that it doesn't go far enough to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities. Some lawmakers wanted the administration to hold those in reserve to try and get better behavior out of Iran. And what we're seeing now is that a lot of the war haawks in the Republican Party who cheered the president at the start of the war, now their big concern is they think that he is going to be defeated at the negotiation table or at very least is giving away too much too early Beyond Washington, other factions of Trump's supporters have started to break with him publicly over the course of the war, like Tucker Carlson and Meghan Kelly Conservative. influential thinkers, they are saying that the administration has not met its war aims. There was not regime change in Iran. There has not been enough of a price exacted on that regime to ensure better behavior moving forward Meanwh, Lgman told us that the administration thinks Trump's critics are paying too much attention to reports on the agreement coming from Iranian media. In this case, I think they have a bit of an argument here. I think that it would be fair to wait until after the dust settles and to see if this peace agreement actually holds to sort of tally up the score and see whether or not that regime has increased its standing. Under federal law, Congress has the power to review any Iran nuclear deal and potentially to vote on it A number of Republicans and Democrats have indicated interest in doing just that President Trump hoped the new Fed chair Kevin Warsh would quickly deliver lower interest rates But after presiding over his first meeting yesterday, the Fed held the benchmark rate steady. The committee decided to maintain the target range for the Fed funds rate. at three and a half to three and three quarters percent. in support of the Fed's dual mandate. That wasn't unexpected The war in Iran has driven up inflation and lower rates at the wrong time could fuel that further In fact, half of War's colleagues on the rate setting Committee said that higher rates are likely on the way President Trump was asked about the decision on Wednesday and said, quote, it's all right, whatever And he said he trusted Warsh if he and the committee do pursue later hikes. It could happen? I mean, it's hard to believe. It just keeps the country down, you know so It's so Unusual We have a very good guy over there now, so I'm guided by what he wants to. War seemingly wants to change how the central bank communicates monetary policy That was evident in the unusually brief statement that the Fed released yesterday, which did not include forward guidance That Fedpeak for statements about what the central Bank will do Like assuring the public they will not raise rates until unemployment reaches a certain level. Worsh explained his thinking to reporters. We've dropped forward guidance. Some along the committee, I think dropped it I suspect from our discussion the last couple of days, because they said at this moment in time, it doesn't feel as though providing forward guidance is right Others have, I'd say, different views and think as a general proposition Forward guidance isn' the business we should be in And that's not the only thing he wanted to change Wst said that he would create five task forces that touch on everything from communications from the central Bank to the very framework that it uses to understand inflation Change isn't easy, Change is filled with risk Our number one goal is to get monetary policy right. way to get monetary policy right is to deliver on the remit that Congress gave us, to deliver on price stability And there was no disagreement on any of those points. Warsh is stepping into this role in very different circumstances than when he was auditioning for it. Inflation rose to a three year high before a peace deal with Iran was announced But at the same time, hiring his picked up which usually removes a rationale for cutting rates Today, roughly seventy five thousand people in a few former coal mining towns in England might just decide the country's next prime mininister The vote is for a parliamentary seat in a tiny part of England called Makerfield But the man seeking the job Andy Burnham has ambitions far beyond that If he wins, he's widely expected to quickly mount a challenge to lead the Labor Party and to take Prime Minister Kir Starmer's job starmer has had a nightmare a couple of years. He won a landslide election almost exactly two years ago and people were expecting him to be in power for a long time. Politicoos Jack Blanchard covered Westminster for many years He told a starmer fell out of favor fast, and he's now extremely unpopular. He's had a series of crises and now the Labour Party, the membership, the members of Parliament basically want him out Burnham is the mayor of Manchester But in order to run the country, you need to be a member of Parliament So over the past few months, he's made little secret of his desire to quit his current job and dislodge Starmer, but without a mechanism to do it. Now he finally has an opening. So at the start of his campaign to be Prime Minister, iss not touring the country making big speeches about what he wants to do for the UK. It's touring this tiny little semi rural district in the middle of nowhere, trying to convince a few thousand people to make him their member of Parliament. Burnham decided to quit national politics a decade ago reteturning to Led his home city in the North Blanchard said that turned out to be a very savvy decision For one, he was able to get tangible things done while his party was in opposition Secondly and most importantly in this moment, Andy Berham has been able to position himself as the sort of anti politician. He's outside of the elite now. He's criticizing the Westminster, the British political structure. He says, it doesn't work for you. And that is the real sort of populist message that chimes with people. Politics in this country, British politics is tired It needs a new script peopleople of Makerfield are gonna write that script. And it's great that they're gonna get that chance But to pull it off, he has to beat the Reform Party, a right wing populist group run by Nigel Farage, the architect of Brexit and a close ally of President Trump Ordinarily they would probably be favorites in this contest, but Blancher said that Burnham has cultivated a strong local brand with a kind of left leaning populism of his own Blanchard says that Burnham now polls among the most popular politicians in the country and preaches a brand of politics that emphasizes localized control higher public spending and wealth taxes. all appealing to the party's base. As for Starmer, he's in an awkward position because this is a fellow labor candidate after all That forces him to publicly backburn him. evenven though he knows it will probably result in his downfall. Burnham's campaign does succeed, it would add to a tumultuous trend in the UK British politics has been in a mess for the last decade. If we do see a change of Prime Minister over the next few weeks, we will be ono our seventh Prime mininister in the UK in ten years. That is absolutely unprecedented in a country that's sort of thought of as being quite a stable democracy. We've seen a real period of turmoil. And so in a sense, K Amor is just the latest casualty in a long list of prime ministers who've been unable to grapple with the various structural difficulties Britain is facing, economic strife, the challenges of removing itself from the European Union, the aftermath of COVID and the inflation we saw then energy crisis. All these things are very real in Britain just as they are in the United States. Here are a few other stories we're following today It was on again, off again in Congress yesterday. Jay Clayton, President Trump's pick as the next director of National intelligence, was supposed to have a confirmation hearing. But just hours before it was scheduled, the president posted on social media that the hearing would be delayed. Technically, presidents don't have any direct control over Senate hearings, leading to a standoff with his own party Republican Tom Cotton, the chairman of the intntelligence Committee first said that they would proceed Then he said that Trump directed Clayton to not appear. the decision that Cotton called regrettable. As to where this all leaves the Senate, It's majority leader John Foone said that Republicans will just have to take it a day at a time In Chicago, the opening ceremony for the Obama presidential center will kick off today Part of the interesting backstory here is that it's not technically a library, as has been the case for past presidents That's an intentional choice that the former president made almost a decade ago, according to the Washington Post. That means the building will not house any presidential documents, which will instead remain with the National Archives In part, that's also a reflection of the time that Obama was president An estimated ninety five percent of the White House's documents never existed on paper Aesthetically, the primary feature of the center is a two hundred and twenty five foot gray granite tower which prompted a comparison from one architecturure professor in the journal to something belonging to an Egyptian pharaoh And finally, the World Cup has already delivered some sensational results and plenty of heroes for smaller nations One country enjoying their first tournament win in thirty six years is Scotland. They beat Haiti one nil in Boston, and all week, their fans have been making their presence known there Fans marched around Fenway Park performing with bagpipes Tartan Army, as they're called, descended into the stadium for a specially themed Scottish celebration night, which included lots of singing and drinking So much so that some bars say they're struggling to keep up One manager at the Sam Adams Tap room told NBC that he'd never seen anything like it. that they'd run out of their logger with crowds consuming four times what they normally see on a july fourth holiday stretch Though celebratory drinks might not last though, Scotland plays Morocco in Boston next, a team that just secured a draw against Brazil You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. and if you're already listening to the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next Don't call it a comeback. Fast Company reports on how the chain restaurant Chil' made a complete turnaround with small fixes and viral cheese pols. If you're listening in the podcast app, you canllow Apple News Plus narrative to find that story. be off for juneteenth, but we'll be back with the news on Monday